Supreme Court ZIP Code Ruling

     According to an article in Direct Marketing News, the Supreme Court recently ruled that it was unethical for marketers to collect ZIP codes during credit card transactions. 

"We're shocked — we never expected a ruling that ZIP codes were personal information," said Bill Dombrowski, president of the California 
Retailers Association, a trade group that represents about 9,000 stores in the state.

     Jessica Pineda's argument was that the company Williams-Sonoma was using the credit card information to find home addresses and other customer information and selling it to other companies.  The ruling was that the company had violated the Song-Beverly Credit Card Act of 1971, which prohibits retailers from gathering customers' personal identification information during a credit card transaction.
  Since this ruling was made, similar lawsuits were made against other companies such as Bed Bath & Beyond, Macy's, Lowe's, Office Depot, and Walmart.  The ruling originally only seemed to be affecting California retailers (where the ruling was made) but has since spread to other states.

     When I am checking out with my credit card I have always assumed that all of my information was safe.  Honestly, I do not think that the use of a ZIP code is a big deal as long as they stay away from my personal information.  Everyone in my town has the same ZIP code, it's a very general piece of information and I do not think that it is unethical to collect it.

When I shop at Victoria Secret they ask for my ZIP code at check out, it is up to the customer to volunteer that information if they choose.  Do you think that that is a more ethical way of collecting the ZIP codes?  Would you volunteer that information if you were asked?